The MMA Vivisection Shows: 'Main Card Preview' & 'Prelims Card Preview'

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Phew! We’ve got 13 fights to look forward to Saturday and you know what? They’re pretty good. You can probably guess why, though. It’s right there in the title, UFC Sao Paulo…as in not at the Apex. Are all the fights great? Nope. But a good many of them are, and that’s a decent way to set the table after a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com That’s right, Elves Brener will be back in action against Kaynan Kruschewsky, the late replacement for Esteban Ribovics. Will the Elves keep his winning streak intact? And we cannot overlook the intriguing pairing of Angie Hill and Denise Gomes. Denise is riding a two-fight win streak and Angie is coming o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com The undercard for UFC 294 is pretty robust, like the main card, and features some intriguing pairings. The one that’s really got our attention, though, is Mokaev vs. Elliot. Elliot is a savvy veteran grappler who depends on split-second adjustments and scrappiness. Mokaev is the exact opposite, often demon...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC 294 might have lost two of its key players, but we still think it looks great. There’s some definite action fights, two titles on the line and some shakeups leading up to the event in the last few weeks that saw opponent changes and some injury dropoffs—all leading to possibly a better card than the or...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com An actual good card at the Apex?! It DOES happen, just not very often. We’re not here to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. We’re here to celebrate the great things about the event. Let’s start with the obvious: There are three ranked fights AND a seventh ranked fighter—seven fighters ranked on a sing...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com As with the main card, there is some name value to be noted on the prelims, too. But what made us scratch our heads was that Darren Elkins is riding in the featured prelim spot. Okay, but are we to ignore that Darren has only won three fights in his last nine? We actually have a ranked fighter on the preli...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Vegas 80 isn’t a completely terrible card. It’s got reasonable fights on it, even if there are only two ranked fighters across the whole of it. Bearing that in mind, we are left to wonder where the main event is. Surely it can’t be Grant Dawson vs. Bobby Green. That’s hardly the stuff headliners are ma...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com That’s right, folks, there’s just a single ranked fighter on the prelims. Karolina Kowalkiewicz will be doing all the heavy lifting Saturday night. There was another ranked fighter on the prelims, Chris Gutierrez, but his opponent, Montel Jackson, withdrew with an illness, so the fight was scrapped from th...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Vegas 79 isn’t too bad. No, really, we mean it. Let’s start with the fact that we got THREE ranked fights on an Apex show. They aren’t fights that are going to set the world on fire, but they’re solid and more importantly, they’re inside the Top 15. It’s also an event that seems to not have been ravage...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com We’re kind of having a hard time believing this is even an Apex card. We have three ranked fights and tons of recognizable names on the bout sheet—even across the prelims. This is the exact opposite of what we’ve been getting. Is this the beginning of a new era? One where the matchmakers show that they app...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com That’s right, folks, a UFC title will be contested on TV with no PPV purchase required. Valentina Shevchenko will attempt to reclaim her belt from Mexico’s Alexa Grasso this Saturday night and we are pumped! Even Connor has begrudgingly admitted an admiration for Valentina aka the object of his ire and dis...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Now before you get upset, we want to preface this with the fact that this card was positively ravaged with cancellations and late replacements, hence the title. And to be fair, there are still some interesting bouts at play here. Tracy Cortez vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius is an amazing matchup between two tough...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com *Note: Due to a technical issue, the first 39 seconds of the episode are missing. The issue has since been resolved. Thank you for your understanding. UFC 293 is here and from the looks of things, it’s not the best card. Sure, there’s definitely a few fun fights but you wouldn’t know which end is up by loo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com For a quick minute or so earlier this summer, we were lulled into a sense of security by the UFC. Just hear us out for a second before you get out the butterfly nets. We already know Apex cards are the “it’s okay to miss” events, but we knew when a show was targeted for anywhere else, it would end up with...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Yep, UFC is treating Paris to an almost good card. Fight cancellations and reshuffling definitely wreaked havoc on this event but there are still some bright spots worth noting. Rose Namajunas vs. Manon Fiorot is one of them. Namajunas will present the toughest challenge to date for Fiorot and the winner h...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Singapore is a top-loaded event with the majority of the “good fights” happening on the main card. What’s left to the prelims is a spate of barely recognizable names, and in some cases, completely unrecognizable. Not to us, of course. We know every fighter in existence, their full backgrounds, their 3r...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Singapore had the chance to be great, but they chose a squash match to headline the card and now we must all worry about the Korean Zombie’s future health after his contest with Max Holloway. We would prefer that Chan Sung Jung face off against Cub Swanson but no, we have to bear witness to what will l...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Make no mistake, UFC 292 is a really good card. That said, Chris Weidman’s return makes all of us a little angsty. To be honest, that angst is tinged with a healthy dose of pity. If we could count the amount of times we’ve heard or read someone ask “Why?”, well, let’s just say it would be a lot. Brad Tavar...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com The UFC certainly lets you know when they care about an event and UFC 292 is a prime example of that. Two titles bouts crown the top of a star-studded card, filled with the potential for action and entertainment. Will Weili Zhang be able to defend the belt against a hungry Amanda Lemos? Will Aljamain Sterl...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com This week, the UFC is back at the Apex, and trust us, it shows. The card technically has no ranked fights, even though there are ranked athletes facing each other—they just happen to be either moving down or up a division to meet their opponents. And at the top of this very Apex card, we have two men who’v...

It will be a day of celebration if we ever get an Apex fight night card that actually looks good on paper and not just in practice, in spite of itself. That day is definitely NOT today. Just in case you were wondering, there are zero ranked fights on the undercard and of course, there are zero ranked fighters there. Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share ou...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Nashville will be directly competing with Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz, but fortunately, UFC had the foresight to throw together an above average event. The main event is going to be an absolute firecracker. Rob Font wasn’t the original opponent, that was Umar Nurmagomedov, who had to withdraw with an injur...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Nashville is a good card and that’s demonstrated in the compelling matchups represented in the lineup. Every fight has a recognizable name—a marked difference from Apex cards—and every one has clear potential for upward movement. Most importantly, all the fights look exciting, at least on paper (lookin...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC 291 thankfully didn’t totally bankrupt the undercard with fights of little value. As a matter of fact, there are a few compelling matchups there. The one that is most visible is Derrick Lewis vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima and for obvious reasons. Derrick Lewis hasn’t seen an undercard since February of 20...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC 291 has stiff competition Saturday night. There’s a solid Bellator vs. Rizin card and of course, the most anticipated fight of the year, Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence, Jr. Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard have done good work, though. At the very least, they’ve put together an absolutely stellar main ev...